Gwangju Fire Headquarters Air Rescue Ambulance Team Achieves '3000 Hours of Accident-Free Flight'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] The Gwangju Metropolitan City Fire Safety Headquarters Air Rescue and Ambulance Team announced on the 28th that it received the Minister of the Interior and Safety Commendation in the ‘2020 Fire Aviation Safety Merit’ category by achieving the record of ‘3,000 hours of accident-free flight of fire helicopters.’

The Air Rescue and Ambulance Team was established in June 1997 with the introduction of the fire helicopter (BK117B-2/10 seats) and has successfully carried out a total of 2,532 various missions including 250 life rescues, 208 patient transfers, and 302 wildfire extinguishing operations, achieving 3,102 hours of accident-free flight to date.

The 3,102 hours of accident-free flight over the past 23 years translates to a distance of approximately 670,000 km, which is ▲ equivalent to flying around the Earth 17 times ▲ 1,240 round trips between Gwangju and Seoul ▲ or the distance of continuously staying airborne for 130 days.

Song Seong-hoon, head of the 119 Special Rescue Unit, said, “I sincerely appreciate the hard work of the aircrew who have safely carried out their missions on site for the long period of 23 years,” and added, “We will not only continue the tradition of accident-free flights but also strive to ensure citizens’ safety by always complying with regulations and procedures, performing skilled aviation missions, and conducting thorough preventive maintenance.”

Meanwhile, the current fire helicopter will be replaced in 2022 with the latest multipurpose medium-sized fire helicopter equipped with state-of-the-art safety equipment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.